Up to my lack-of-tonsils

Malabrigo Rios - Yarn Review

2011-12-09T13:22:00.002Z

Firstly, this is more of an ode of adoration than a review. Malabrigo Rios is my new favourite yarn. It's 100% merino, well plied and very springy, soft and squidgey. In short, it's amazing. I've knit two hats and two pairs of gloves from it and will be knitting more. It comes in 100g skeins with 210 yards so it's worsted weight and makes very snug items when knit on 4mm needles. Like Malabrigo sock I would prefer if it came in more solid and semi-solid colourways. Purple mystery and solis are gorgeous though! It has a great handle, wonderful stretch and would be perfect for garments, accessories or cabled items. The spring-back would make it less suitable for lace. Another hat, mittens and cowl in this yarn will soon be made!

I is for Irish

2011-04-18T21:14:00.002+01:00

I am Irish and I love my language. I love to speak it, read it and hear it. It's like music to my soul. So it aches that I cannot use it very much any more. My husband and colleagues have very little (if any) Irish. It's only around my family that I get to use it for more than simple sentences, properly spoken with the real natural pronunciation and not the 'standard' dialect I use for non-native speakers. To go from fluent to the state my Irish is in now breaks my heart. Sadly given the international context of my work this is unlikely to change.

I-mathematician is Ito and 'i' is for the square root of minus one.

H is for Hotel

2011-04-18T12:14:00.003+01:00

A hotel in Paris is where I spent last week. I couldn't get internet access on my laptop so I've to catch up on letters again! The hotel was undergoing renovations so getting into/out of my room was an adventure. The drain backed up one day and flooded the room, unfortunately the day I desperately needed a nap. More on this in later post. Then the water went entirely. Bit of a disaster hotel really. That said I had a great conference in Paris: my presentation went very well, I had lots of time with my colleagues and met mathematicians from around the world.

Hamilton is one of the most well known Irish mathematicians. Famed for his work on mechanics, differential equations and the invention of the quaternions. The quaternions are described by this equation

and are one of only four finite dimensional normed division algebras over the real numbers. There is an annual pilgrimage in Ireland from Dunsink Observatory where he worked to Broom Bridge where it is believed the idea for the quaternions struck him. Apparently he engraved the idea into the bridge and there is a plaque there now to commemorate him. Each October the RIA hold the Hamilton Lecture given by the best of mathematicians.

2005 was the 200th anniversary of his birth and a commemorative 10 Euro coin was minted in Ireland. I received one as a 21st birthday present and treasured it until giving it to my husband as part of our marriage ceremony. One side looked like this:

Finally a note on 'h' in the Irish Language. It is the third most frequently used letter as it is the most common representation of the 'séimhiú' since Irish switched to the roman alphabet about the 1950s. Previous to then a dot above the consonant to be leniated was used.

G is for G

2011-04-08T21:33:00.003+01:00

G is my wonderful husband, an ever patient ever kind man. I'm incredibly lucky to have found him and even luckier that I get to keep him.

G is also for guilt: I'm guilty of writing three letter-posts in one day to catch up on the blogfest!

Grá is the Irish word for love and how appropriate for today, dedicated to G my 'fíorghrá' - 'truelove'.

Gauss wrote 'Disquisitiones Arithmeticae' and many other important works. A pre-eminent mathematician there is too much to say about him so I will direct you to a biography. There is also Galois, who by his death at the age 20 had already begun the investigation of an entire new area of maths, Galois Theory.

F is for Fields Medal

2011-04-08T16:37:00.002+01:00

Arguably the most important honour in mathematics the Fields Medal has been awarded every four years "to recognize outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and for the promise of future achievement". Between two and four mathematicians, no older than 40, are chosen and the prize is awarded at the International Congress of Mathematicians. The medal bears the head of Archimedes and the inscription "TRANSIRE SUUM PECTUS MUNDOQUE POTIRI", one translation of which is "To transcend one's spirit and to take hold of the world". Sometimes called the Nobel Prize of Mathematics, as there is no such, it certainly carries the significance of such though the recently begun Abel Prize follows the Nobel Prize idea much closer. I used to dream as a child of earning a Fields Medal one day.

Favourite Fields Medalists: Jean Pierre Serre (the youngest so far), Timothy Gowers (co-founder of Tricki) and Terence Tao (mind-boggling genius).

'Fréamh' is one of my favourite Irish words, meaning 'root'.

F-ing Amazing mathematicians include Fibonacci, Fermat, Frobenius and Fourier.

Finally F is for fantastic friend, fried food and fabulous frock.

E is for Emergency Shawl

2011-04-05T23:39:00.005+01:00

This is the shawl that took 6 days of frantic crocheting to make on time to wear to the wedding. It took almost 800m of laceweight merino (bought at This is Knit) and about half a tube of beads from Winnie's Craft Cafe. It's about 1.5m x 0.5m and delightfully soft and warm. I had a really painful swollen wrist after the constant fast crochet and couldn't crochet, type or knit for a few days. Couldn't fit my watch or wedding rings on either. Now it has returned to normal and I'm easing myself back into typing and crafting again.

E brings us many incredible Mathematicians: Euclid, Eratosthenes, Eisenstein, Erdos and Euler to name a few. Euclid wrote the geometry book 'The Elements' which still forms the basis of geometry today, despite being written over 2000 years ago. Eratosthenes was librarian at Alexandria in its prime, before it was burned down at the turn of the millennium. He calculated the circumference of the earth to remarkable accuracy considering the times and is renowned for his 'sieve' algorithm for determining the prime numbers. Euler was possibly the most prolific mathematician ever and introduced much of the notation that is used today, including the 'e' for that mathematical constant that is the base of natural logarithms. Famous also for his identity
His contributions to mathematics are vast and I am entirely in awe of him.

The Irish word of the day is the verb 'éalaigh' - to escape. Often you will find a sign saying simply 'éalú' for exit or emergency exit.

D is for Dancing

2011-04-05T22:58:00.003+01:00

Dancing is one of my favourite things to do. Even more than maths, even more than knitting and crocheting. There is such freedom and soul in expressing oneself to music, spinning around in the arms of another or having a boogie with friends. Above is a little picture of my husband and I swing dancing.

D for Delightful ladies at knit night too, I was glad to be able to knit a row or two again but have to be careful of the wrist/hand still. No progress on anything until it heals fully. Can't wait to get back into the secret garden shawl!

Dirichlet is the magnificent mathematician of the day. He made progress on two cases of Fermat's Last Theorem and was generally amazing in number theory, potential theory and all of maths really.

D must also be for Dónal Mac Mathúna a man beyond compare and the Deora (tears) I shed when he left this world. Read and listen here.

C is for Coding

2011-04-04T17:25:00.003+01:00

Coding Theory is the area of maths that I'm researching and writing my doctoral thesis on. Essentially it's all about achieving efficient information transmission (or storage) by adding or removing redundancy.

C is also for Ceol - the Irish word for music. Each year as part of National Irish Week (Seachtain na Gaeilge) there is an album released of popular music with Irish language lyrics instead. The 96cambridge channel on youtube has some of the songs from these.

For a mathematician we have Cauchy- one of the most prolific mathematicians of all time with almost 800 papers.His name appears frequently and in many seemingly disparate branches of maths.

As mentioned before C is for Commutative. In maths we say an operation * is commutative whenever a * b = b * a. Addition and multiplication are commutative but subtraction and division are not.

Honourable mentions go to Crochet, Cryptography and Calves that ache after dancing my socks off at the wedding!

B is for Brian&Rachel

2011-04-02T11:50:00.002+01:00

Today is the day that Brian and Rachel get married. I hope it is a Beautiful day and that they continue to love and cherish each other, to grow together and to work to make life better for each other. I felt after getting married that nothing had really changed but yet everything was somehow Better. I hope they feel the same.

B is also for the Irish word 'buamaite' meaning 'moment'. It's my brother's favourite word and I'm quite fond of it too.

Boole is certainly not a b-list mathematician as his concept of Boolean logic and algebra underlies the entire digital age. Find out more on wikipedia.

A is for April

2011-04-01T17:27:00.003+01:00

This month I will be attempting to participate in the Blog a letter a day (excluding Sundays) challenge. This will be quite difficult as I'm travelling a lot in April. April is also Maths Awareness Month which I will endeavour to embody. I will be giving at least three mathematical talks this month as part of my travels so I think I'm set up.

A is for Anew, Afresh, Again.
Today I attacked my work with renewed vigour. Revising my paper and presentation for Paris, again. hopefully this fervency will continue to develop for the month and my work will progress quickly. I also took back up the Secret Garden shawl which languished while I was furiously crocheting the Emergency Shawl. This enterprise left me with a pretty shawl but a sore and swollen hand. One day of planning, 6 days of crocheting, 2 days of blocking and it's ready to pack for tomorrow.

A is also for the Irish words ait and áit meaning 'strange' and 'place' respectively. As in 'Is ait an áit é seo': this is a strange place. It is amazing the difference a fada can make.

Finally, in the mathematical world A is for Abel the mathematician and Abelian groups. More on this when we get to 'c is for commutative' day!

Giving Up.

2011-03-31T15:03:00.002+01:00

For the second time in my life I am giving up on a book. The first was Catch22. Started several times but could never make the end. This time it's book 2 in the Crowthistle Chronicles by Cecilia Dart-Thornton, The Well of Tears. While the prose is pretty the plot and characters could not keep me interested. The first book, The Iron Tree, was certainly enjoyable but the sequel I failed to be captivated by in any way. When I do have time to read for the sheer delight of it I prefer if the book is at least pleasant or interesting. I'm now reading 'Finding Moonshine - Mathematicians, Monsters and the Mysteries of Symmetry' by Marcus du Sautoy and it is a far more gripping, enthralling read. I loved his previous book 'The Music of the Primes' and so far his latest offering is just as beautifully written.

Seanad Election 2011 - the NUI

2011-03-30T15:36:00.002+01:00

Recently I received my ballot paper for the Seanad Election by registered post. As a graduate of UCD I am entitled to vote in the NUI constituency. I registered in the run up to the last Seanad election. I am supportive on the original idea behind the Seanad and certainly the university representatives have included some very eminent persons. That said the entire construct is unbalanced and ineffective. Nonetheless I consider any vote a grave responsibility and so I have endeavoured to research the (many) candidates on the ballot. Thus far I have discovered very little beyond this short summary on the NeverFeltBetter blog and the leaflets on the site for Irish Election Literature. I am as yet undecided but will fulfil my civic duty to the best of my ability. Is anyone else contemplating their Seanad vote?

Emergency Shawl

2011-03-25T10:37:00.004Z

Thanks everyone for the good wishes! This is the shawl that started the Secret Garden adventure. Updates will be on the ravelry page. I'm in the middle of a colour transition so it's not portable knitting at the moment.

In fact the project has been temporarily abandoned until I finish a shawl for a wedding next weekend. I accidentally found the perfect yarn for the dress on Wednesday, the beads that evening and did the resizing calculations that night. The yarn is Malabrigo lace in Emerald Blue. I'm working off a previous crochet shawl, also in Malabrigo Lace. Started a 414 stitch chain yesterday, the rows are long and I'm almost through the first skein already. Hope I did those calculations right!

Into the Secret Garden

2011-03-23T12:29:00.002Z

As part of the 10 shawls in 2010 challenge I won a spot prize for my southbay shawl, as photographed by Julie of www.halfadreamaway.com and the prize was the making of another shawl. So I've had the Secret Garden pattern and 6skeins of Luxe yarn from the Unique sheep in the Eleanora gradience colourway sitting ready to go.

After practising several cast ons and some gauge swatches with some spare Malabrigo sock I decided to cast on. This will be my first circular shawl and my first project of this size. I'm excited and a little scared. I'm hoping to have it done and blocked my the end of June. This gives me about 3 months. I think I'll need it. The needles were flying along until I reached the Fountain Lace pattern and the first colour transition. Double decreases over stitch markers are not fun and so I'll be knitting mostly marker free. Wish me luck.

Ladybird Collage

2011-03-11T11:47:00.002Z

Playing around with picassa I've put together my first collage, of some ladybird items in my posession. Collages are fun and could be a great way to blog my fibre art accomplishments. Expect to see more.

Writing Scared, Sick and Tired

2011-03-09T13:08:00.003Z

First thing this morning an email arrived. The final version of my paper has been received and compiled. Whew. Soon I will be excited about going to Paris to present it. Right now I'm exhausted.

Back in January I realised the submission date for the International Workshop on Coding and Cryptography was approaching fast. By the time I'd agreed to submit a paper with my supervisor I had five days to write up my work as a paper. At which time I came down with a viral infection. Thankfully I had the research complete and most of it loosely typed up. Unfortunately it's the words in between the maths, the history and conclusions that I find the hardest of all. Years of practice studying pre-tonsillectomy, lots of determination and a HUGE amount of support from G and Suey meant I made it. My first paper submitted to an International conference.

A few days recovering from the illness were ok but I still had seminar to write and present, a talk to prepare and give and on top of all that a more general theorem to prove. When March 1st came along I found out my paper was accepted! Delighted! There were a lot of corrections to do before final submission though, not surprising given my feverish, analgesic addled state writing it. Finally got it all adapted, edited and typeset perfectly last night, just in the nick of time.

While it is joint work with other authors, I would like to secretly dedicate "Characteristics of Invariant Weights Related to Code Equivalence over Rings" to writing 'even though' scared (even though you're scared you won't be able to do it, scared it won't be good enough, scared you'll make a mess of it, scared you'll miss the deadline), sick (trying to plan your painkillers so you're not too fuzzy-headed to think, or too in pain to concentrate, even though you should be in bed, ignoring how your body feels so you can work) and tired (tired of writing, tired of having to work all the time, tired of being awake for too long) and the amazing magical people that encourage and support us to do it.

Now back to writing the Thesis.

World Book Day

2011-03-07T09:54:00.002Z

I didn't get to celebrate World Book Day on March 3rd so I did on the 4th instead. I splashed out on a copy of 'The Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss. Possibly the best fantasy book (or even book?) that I've ever read. Given the rate at which I typically read books that's quite an honour. Although I've had very little time for enjoyment reading lately. With the launch of the sequel I thought it was essential that G rectify the travesty of not having read the first book yet. I hope he enjoys it as much as I did. Looking forward to a quick re-read before I can borrow the latest book. Despite running out of shelf space this book definitely deserves a place on the bookcase.

Ladybirds

2011-02-28T11:10:00.004Z

I have a thing for all things ladybird related. Other people have realised this and so I've collected quite a few ladybird treats. Even my husband knew I liked them before we really knew each other well. He brought me back some chocolate ladybirds from Italy which sparked the start of a lovely romance. We then had those little ladybirds for wedding favours, one of the fun things we indulged in. There was also the pi cake and the polka dot dress. Of course I completely forgot to explain the ladybirds to anyone on the day. But we knew the significance of it.

I thought I might include some pictures of my ladybird paraphernalia, including the stuffed one that inexplicably appeared on my desk. I have yet to discover its origin. There will probably be a pinterest board on ladybirds once I actually get used to pinning. For now you can see my bits and pieces on flickr.

World of Wool

2011-02-23T10:17:00.003Z

At Christmas I received a beautiful spindle of my own from a wonderful friend who had been lending me hers. It's a clay top whorl drop spindle from Zebisis designs on Etsy, 26g approx, and I love it. It wasn't long before my new resolution of spinning a little every day brought me close to fibre-less-ness.

Hence I decided that the perfection celebration of my paper submission to a major conference would be an order from World of Wool. 2 kilos of fibre is an appropriate prize, right?

February came and still no sign of my fibre. I was down to my last pieces of fluff. Well, apart from the silk I'm saving for the day I'm able to spin consistently. I had to spin as thin as I could so the fibre would last until the WoW order arrived. Eventually all problems were sorted and I am now the proud owner of a years supply of fibre. 500g corriedale which I hope to make ablanket from. A mix of 3 natural bfl fibres. Some bfl and silk to try, some coloured merino to be pretty and some amazingly soft camel to snuggle.

I finished the fibre on the spindle as fast as I could so I could try a little of each fibre. Mammoth plying session left me a little burnt out. Should probably have just waited and plyed the two singles. Patience will need to be worked on. A great excuse for another spindle I think.

Questionnaire

2011-02-16T14:38:00.004Z

Today, I'm taking part in Nicole Ducleroir's Bernard Pivot blogfest!

What is your favourite word?
Today it was 'interesting', repeated ad infinitum.

What is your least favourite word?
definitely, necessary - I have trouble spelling both of these.

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
space to think, freedom to be me and experiencing nature.

What turns you off?
judgements.

What is your favorite curse word?
Pants

What sound or noise do you love?
the sound of the wind and sea, babies giggling, piano music.

What sound or noise do you hate?
high pitched buzzing/whining/screaming. Also the 'sound' of touching things like polystyrene or rough fabrics.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
doctor (everything from dermatologist to pathologist), fine carpenter, mechanic, psychologist, professional fibre artist, dancer, science journalist, designer and many MANY more.

What profession would you not like to do?
executioner.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
You did your best and that was good enough.

Return

2011-02-15T14:28:00.002Z

To help with my technical writing I will *try* posting here more often. Topics will be as disparate as usual and may include anything fibre/wool/maths/science/books/education related and assorted opinionated rants. Please allow that I might be 'trying on' a viewpoint or discussion basis rather than laying out my personal beliefs.

Websplash for Book!

2010-12-01T19:57:00.002Z

Help Talli Roland's debut novel THE HATING GAME hit the Kindle bestseller list at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk by spreading the word today. Even a few sales in a short period of time on Amazon helps push the book up the rankings, making it more visible to other readers.

Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/hNBkJk

Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/hX2ieD

No Kindle? Download a free app at Amazon for Mac, iPhone, PC, Android and more.

Coming soon in paperback. Keep up with the latest at www.talliroland.com.

About THE HATING GAME:

When man-eater Mattie Johns agrees to star on a dating game show to save her ailing recruitment business, she's confident she'll sail through to the end without letting down the perma-guard she's perfected from years of her love 'em and leave 'em dating strategy. After all, what can go wrong with dating a few losers and hanging out long enough to pick up a juicy £2000,000 prize? Plenty, Mattie discovers, when it's revealed that the contestants are four of her very unhappy exes. Can Mattie confront her past to get the prize money she so desperately needs, or will her exes finally wreak their long-awaited revenge? And what about the ambitious TV producer whose career depends on stopping her from making it to the end?

Useful LaTeX

2010-03-25T15:32:00.001Z

Courtesy of Richard I thought I'd post a link to a really cool cheat sheet for LaTeX typesetting. Enjoy!

http://www.math.utpa.edu/lf/Teaching/LectureNotes/MathModeling/tex/latexsheet.pdf

Cool Periodic Table

2009-11-16T13:13:00.001Z

Found this recently on Terry Tao's website, a periodic table where each element has its uses documented with it. Should make a poster for each lab in the country.

PM apologises to Alan Turing

2009-11-16T13:09:00.000Z

On Thursday, 10 September the Prime Minister apologised for the treatment of Alan Turing, who took his own life two years after he was prosecuted for being gay. The apology came in response to a petition, created by computer scientist, John Graham-Cumming, which has over 30,000 signatories.

The Prime Minister’s apology also recognised Alan Turing’s vital role during World War Two:

Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War Two could well have been very different.

And the Prime Minister concluded by saying:

So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan’s work I am very proud to say: we’re sorry, you deserved so much better.

These quotes are taken from The Official site of the Prime Minister’s Office, and the full apology is available at http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20571.

This article quoted from the IMA site

Long-due Update

2009-10-15T11:02:00.002+01:00

I passed my transfer assessment - now I'm a Stage 2 phd student. Hooray! Then I got married and had a great holiday with my lovely husband. Then we moved house. Now I'm back in phd-land again, finding it hard to settle in and fighting exhaustion.

I also have some interesting science-related plans which will be highly funding-dependent. I will keep you posted of developments.

Books & update

2009-07-02T12:25:00.002+01:00

Finally finished Charles Stross' Accelerando. Hard work but probably worth it. Taking a break now to re-read Philip Pullman's Dark Materials. Always a good read. Waiting to be transfer assessed for my Phd. Can find me on ravelry where there will soon be pictures of my obsessive hat crocheting.

Understanding the Financial Crisis

2009-06-03T14:34:00.003+01:00

There's a very interesting half-day conference coming up in U.C.D. called 'Understanding the financial crisis: Did mathematical models fail?'. I'm fascinated by the implications of the recent crash for financial mathematics and can't wait to hear what some of the experts have to say. Be there or be a regular quadrilateral.

Primary School Problems

2009-05-29T11:01:00.002+01:00

I was thinking this morning about the training systems for teachers in Ireland, at all levels. I have various views on the topic, probably quite unusual or controversial. However it struck me today how there might be a correlation between falling numbers of male teachers and the statistical evidence that females tend to gain, on-average, more points in the Leaving Certificate than males (can't find the reference or precise terms). I would be interested to see what percentage of males applying to primary level teaching courses are successful and compare this to the percentage of successful females. I have long thought that interviews should be re-introduced for courses which lead to a professional qualification reliant on human relations. This could be incorporated into the CAO system in a similar way as the portfolios are for artistic options. Perhaps this would help to mitigate the effects of the high points required and encourage those who might be intimidated by them. There is also a strange situation in effect where Leaving Cert males do not think it is socially acceptable to express an interest in primary teaching, while society considers it a laudable choice. This arises from a dichotomy of thought in society. But perhaps that is a rant for another day on the status of teachers in the new millennium.

Excellent Hunky Dorys

2009-05-28T14:06:00.002+01:00

Hunky Dorys are a brand of Irish crisps made in Meath and Lisburn. I had some in my sandwich today and they were tasty. But the best bit of all was the packet. Under allergy advice it has:
"Doesn't contain Kryptonite (but does contain soya)".
What originally caught my attention though was the advice:
Storage Conditions:
Treat Hunky Dorys like Gremlins. Keep them cool, dry & away from bright lights &strong flavours.

I don't remember the strong flavours being a problem for the gremlins but it's been a few years since I last saw it. Must re-watch!

The 3rd Annual Science, Engineering, Communications & Outreach Conference

2009-05-28T12:48:00.002+01:00

On Thursday 21st May I attended this conference in Engineers Ireland. It was an excellent day, full of insightful presentations and discussions. I was delighted by the opportunity to meet some of the most eminent practitioners in the field of science communication and promotion. I took many thoughts, ideas and tips away with me and hope to have the opportunity soon to apply them.

Confessions of a Science Librarian

2009-05-05T13:06:00.002+01:00

On the blog list to the right -------------->
you will find a blog called Confessions of a Science Librarian.
Read the May 4th post entitled 'Is Canada losing the lab-rat race?'. In fact, read plenty of the articles as otherwise I'll have to keep linking to them.
In the aforementioned article we see that the worldwide epidemic of poorly paid lab-trapped souls is certainly rife in Canada. There will be no success in outreach programmes until we don't have to lie to prospective scientists and make science seem more glamorous than it really is.

Also of interest in terms of the dissemination of scientific ideas is this one day conference in Dublin. Perhaps I will see you there.

Book Review: Ender's Game

2009-05-01T08:18:00.000+01:00

'Ender's Game' by Orson Scott Card.

VERDICT: INSOMNIA INDUCING

Won the 1985 Nebula Award and the 1986 Hugo Award. A thoroughly enjoyable book. Set in the future, the tale centres around the life of a boy and the struggles he faces. Despite the science-fiction background this is a story of humanity with well-developed characters and a page-turning plot. My only complaints about the book are (1) there are ONLY 6 further books in the series and 4 in the related shadow series, hoping for more as he's still writing (2) The rest of my life was accidentally put on hold while reading these books, still recovering from the extreme sleep deprivation. I will tell you nothing further, I read the book based only on the recommendation that it was a good book and I'm glad no one spoiled it on me.

Invisibilty Cloak a reality.

2009-04-30T15:03:00.002+01:00

Well, almost. Scientists at Cornell and Berkeley have created a 'cloak' that can bend (certain wavelengths of) light around an object, effectively making it invisible. Unfortunately it's only a few thousandths of a millimetre in size. Read more about it on the bbc, or even read the original article in Nature.

Science Speaks

2009-04-30T14:56:00.002+01:00

Congratulations to Julie O' Donovan who won this year's Science Speak Competition in the R.D.S. on Monday for her talk 'Collections of Spherical Obstacles that Brownian Motion can Avoid'. I'm sure U.C.C. are delighted to win again. Personally thrilled a mathematician won, particularly after a theoretical physicist ( Suzanne Mc Endoo from U.C.C. ) won last year.

U.S. Voting Rights Act

2009-04-29T09:54:00.002+01:00

The Voting Rights Act in the United States is due to come under review in the supreme court shortly. Currently there is a provision whereby some states and/or counties are required to get pre-approval for changes in voting procedures. Typically the jurisdictions included are those who had a history of racial discrimination. Section 5 of the act, as mentioned, is designed to prevent changes that would impinge on the rights of any section of voters. Objections have been lodged against this, despite evidence that it has been an effective preventative measure. Read more about it.

Personally I think that discrimination based on race is still rife in the United States, only now it happens for several different races. In addition the poverty gap is immense and the polarisation of social classes has been noticed as a basis for discrimination. I agree that the Section 5 of the act as it stands, applying to only a handful of areas, is highly divisive. However I believe that, rather than discarding it, they should extend the provision to all states, counties and jurisdictions and reinforce the multi-faceted nature of the anti-discrimination act.

Writing in the new age, a terrifying prospect.

2009-04-28T18:46:00.004+01:00

Follow the link, read it all and you will understand the terror that fills so many of us when we think about young people nowadays. My youth not withstanding.

I was reading 'Confessions of a Science Librarian' and found this:

"
Check out the syllabus for ENG 371WR: Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era:

As print takes its place alongside smoke signals, cuneiform, and hollering, there has emerged a new literary age, one in which writers no longer need to feel encumbered by the paper cuts, reading, and excessive use of words traditionally associated with the writing trade...

*snip*

Students will acquire the tools needed to make their tweets glimmer with a complete lack of forethought, their Facebook updates ring with self-importance, and their blog entries shimmer with literary pithiness. All without the restraints of writing in complete sentences. w00t! w00t!

"

Projective Geometry

2009-04-20T13:45:00.002+01:00

Learning a lot about Projective Geometry at the moment. Even gave a talk on it to the maths society. It's really interesting and fun, unfortunately I think geometry is a little too literal minded for my abstract take on everything. The idea is to generalise to geometries on rings and then use these to create low density parity check codes in an analogous way to how they are created using geometries over finite fields. Watch this space! (but not too enthusiastically)

We can see God's Hand in the Universe

2009-04-14T11:52:00.003+01:00

Or certainly a very big hand!

See this amazing pulsar at Nasa.

Science Communication

2009-03-11T13:45:00.003Z

Thought I'd share some websites that keep us informed of science developments and science communication in Ireland.

http://www.science.ie/
Science Spin Magazine
Science Magazine
Eureka Science Supplement for Primary Schools
Women in Technology and Science
The Alchemist Cafe Dublin
http://interactive.ucc.ie/ucc/
http://www.discover-science.ie/
Think for Yourself

One can even find the works of Darwin online.

Oops!

2009-03-09T15:10:00.002Z

Haven't done much new research lately, I've been writing up my work and creating posters and preparing seminars based on this work. Have some more changes to make to the latest draft and I'll post a link to it once I'm done. Then I can be back to some good real work! Visit my site for electronic versions of my latest poster and recent seminar slides. If you're interested, it's all on weights on codes over rings. i.e. math of coding theory. Should be fairly accessible.

Reading Orson Scott Card's Ender Series at the moment, incredibly addictive! Will post reviews once I stop reading for long enough! Also will post a review of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, another excellent book.

Found myself reading lots of motivational-based books to beat the 2nd-year slump of the phd. I'm open to any good suggestions! Or if anyone has suggestions for coding-theory or algebraic geometry 'summer' schools or workshops etc.

Gathering together some scientists from all walks to put together a science-communication group in Ireland, might post some more information here as it arrives. Could be interesting and lots of fun!

Scrabble in Research

2008-12-05T15:42:00.003Z

Have finally found a way to describe my research area to 8 year olds. If they know about Scrabble that is. Essentially I work on proving extension theorems about weights on ring linear codes. If one really simplifies this you can think of it as follows. Think of the words we make in scrabble as being codewords, out of the set of possible combinations of the letters only some of them are actually words. Every letter has a score assosciated with it, usually on the letter tile. If we call this the weight of the letter and the total score (neglecting any triple-letter-score bonuses etc) we call the weight of the word. Then the possible scores that we can attatch to the letters and the repercussions of these changes are essentially what I work on. Not much help in real scrabble though! Of course the alphabets I use are different, the rules for making 'valid' words must have certain properties and there are infinitely many of each letter in the imaginary scrabble bag.

Atherosclerosis

2008-11-28T17:30:00.002Z

Atherosclerosis long thought to be plaque sticking to the artery walls has been thorougly discussed in the article linked here. Fascinating and an important read for anyone with a heart.

Book Reiew: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

2008-11-28T13:17:00.002Z

'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' by Jean-Dominique Bauby

VERDICT: Pleasant

A wonderful book. A fantastic view of life from a man who could only move his left eyelid to communicate. Humbling and instills one with a renewed love and appreciation of life and all those things we take for granted. Read it, it won't take you long and it will change your perspective.

Book Review: Mc Cathy's Bar

2008-11-27T18:49:00.002Z

'Mc Carthy's Bar' by Pete Mc Carthy

VERDICT: (mostly) put-down-able

This book reminded me of
Tony Hawks' 'Round Ireland with a fridge'
a book I greatly enjoyed. Both follow the near-random wanderings of an Englishman around Ireland.

Pete Mc Carthy's travels centre mostly around West Cork, the idyllic setting of his childhood holidays and a place he has never lost his grá for. Through the humour of bizarre happenings we glimpse the changes brought on by the 'celtic tiger'. Although intended as a comic story, and parts can be funny, I felt a melancholy undertone borne out of our narrator's longing to rightfully claim Ireland as his home, despite his English birth. The book characterises certain elements of Irish culture and landscape that escape many writers and makes an intersting read for any Irish person, or potential visitor.

The Giving of Thanks

2008-11-27T17:39:00.003Z

If I were a turkey-loving American traditionalist and lover-of-holidays I would be celebrating thanksgiving today. Although I will be saving myself for Christmas-day-turkey in less than a month I will share some little things I'm thankful for in a small way today:

sunshine + dry weather on my walk into work.
ESB (electricity bill) not as scarily big as the last one.
free cake + fizzy lemonade for the arrival of IRU
chocolates from Belgium courtesy of Vijay
warm clothes fresh from the drier
feast of boris three times in one month (pity no-one was ready to ascend)
having lunch with a brilliant book and the guts to do so
being able to do more than blink one eyelid

things I thank my lucky stars for everyday include:
greg (everything about him)
my family + their health + well being
my friends
my health (being able to dance, walk, laugh and have fun)
nature ( from kicking fallen leaves to being mesmerised by waterfalls)
life!

What are you thankful for?

Mean Maths!

2008-11-14T14:28:00.003Z

I had a nice formula for something. Then I couldn't prove its validity when I went to type up my results. Wrote up things the awkward formula-free way. Asked my supervisor for help because I'd found a flaw in the formula. So he gave me a helpful idea. Which was great, I wrote up a nice new proof of the formula. Except I then realised I still have the same little flaw. Have now eventually found a work-around, which is a pain, and can continue. Continue and completely re-write and re-latex all my major work that is. So relieved and dejected. An interesting combination, added to which we have the nerves about the poster I'm trying to design. Lots of working late this week will probably be continuing for some weeks.

Review Gradings

2008-11-10T11:42:00.002Z

Ok, I've decided that for future reviews each book, author, series etc. will be given a rating from the list:
Insomnia Inducing
Socially Detrimental
Addictive
Pleasant
Put-down-able
Tedious
Soul Destroying

or some variations thereof. In general the first three indicate that the book is great, though a bit too good. The second two show a book that is good to read if you feel like reading but won't inhibit your ability to live your life independent of it. The last two mean you would really need a reason to read them.

Personal Update

2008-11-10T11:41:00.003Z

Ok. Sort of fell of the face of the blogosphere for a while there. Things were incredibly busy in both personal life and work and then I got sick. Back in business now and hopefully will have a few new reviews in the offing :)

A new blog!

2008-09-16T14:48:00.002+01:00

Sorry to anyone who was confused by my latest post in my native language. I've decided to create a new, separate, blog for all my ramblings in Irish. It's called Grá agus Gaeilge and you can find a link in my blog list or just go direc to gaeilgelecaitlin.blogspot.com if you're interested.

Deora agus ceol

2008-09-10T14:32:00.002+01:00

Le deanaí bhí mé ag éisteacht le cheol 08 ar 'youtube'. Is breá liom an idirlíon :) Tháinig mé trasna 'playlist' duine éigin a bhfuil go h-íontach.

Bhí mo dhreathair ag obair mar Chinnire an samhraidh seo chaite igColáiste Sheosaimh, áit a chaith mé an-chuid ám blianta ó shin. Thaispeáin sé dom an t-amhrán seo de Seán ag canadh ar an oíche deireanach den chúrsa. Tháinig na cuimhní go léir ar ais agus na deora leo. Níor thuig mé go dtí an buamaite sin nach mbeadh Dónal ann aris go deo. Fuair sé bás i rith mo scrúdaithe agus ní raibh seans agam glacáil leis ag an ám. Ní bheidh a leithéid ann arís.

Getting Places

2008-09-10T14:23:00.003+01:00

Had a very exciting day yesterday, mathematically. I think the insomnia gave me lots of time to think things over so that I came up with ways to solve the problems I was working on. Then proceeded to show all sorts of wonderful correspondances between the ring and the algebra I'm working with. Hooray! Plodding throught the details today and hopefully there'll not be too many fiddly bits. One of the best meetings with my supervisor I've had in a while. He had vision and I had an idea of how these things connected. Great Stuff! If I've it all written up my friday I can have a fun weekend of LaTeX :)

Mathsoc library

2008-09-01T16:09:00.002+01:00

As mathsoc librarian I feel obliged to provide the current list of available books belonging to mathsoc. If anyone would like to borrow any of these books just contact me, eg by leaving a comment to this post, and I will arrange it. After October 1st you will need a current mathsoc membership number. Or maybe just a chocolate brownie for me...

Anyone willing to loan items from their personal collection to mathsoc members just email me the details of the book: title, author, publisher etc and I will arrange it to be added to the list as appropriate. Lending will be on your terms only and you may choose on each occasion if you wish to lend it or not.

Radical excitement

2008-09-01T15:49:00.000+01:00

Ok, I think I have the radical of the algebra in terms of the radical of the underlying ring. Hooray! A tiny step along the way but it might be as far as it's possible to go so I'm pleased, provided it's all correct of course and I don't wake up in the middle of the night realising I've made a mistake somewhere along the way....*fingers crossed*

Now just the invisible theorem and the tricky review to finish...

Radical Times

2008-08-29T12:03:00.003+01:00

Ok, at the moment I'm trying to characterise the Jacobson radical of the factor algebra of the algebra of complex functions from a ring under multiplicative convolution. If you think that sounds convoluted I probably shouldn't add that this was the simplest explanation I could come up with. I've typed up a rough sketch of some of the background work I've done on this algebra, what it is and how it works. The Jacobson radical however is proving elusive, despite all my best efforts. Essentially I've a big set of objects with some structure and I'm trying to find a little very structured bit inside it that has special properties. Tricky stuff :) Hopefully once I've found out what it looks like I'll be able to use it to prove a theorem that another researcher in the field has already proved a different way. Made especially difficult since I can't seem to find his proof or any mention of it.

Also, I've been aksed to review an article on an area related to mine for a recognised journal. Unfortunately I've not much experience with this area which means an awful lot of background reading. I don't think my review will be up to much although I think I've found a neater way to define one of the objects they use. My lack of global vision on the topic precludes any idea of the overall relevence of the work.

Science Demands Your Vote!

2008-07-29T17:20:00.003+01:00

Please go to the Science for a succesul Ireland website, watch the three videos and vote for the one you think is best. Personally I think this is video B and I'm not at all biased by the fact that Suzanne is my friend...

A warning update!

2008-07-29T16:23:00.002+01:00

Contrary to my most recent post I would now advise that the book 'The Phd Process' be read ONLY before starting a phd. Under no circumstances should this book be read during a particular tough part of one's phd adventure. Unless you wish to be filled with dread, depression and self-loathing. Consider yourselves warned.

Recently Read Pop-Sci (Math)

2008-07-24T14:23:00.002+01:00

'Mathematics: A very short introduction' by Timothy Gowers
'Letters to a young mathematician' by Ian Stewart
'A mathematician's apology' by G.H. Hardy with foreword by J.P. Snow (brilliant!)
Currently reading the 'further reading' sections of these books.

Also reading 'The Ph.D. Process: A student's guide to Graduate school in the sciences'. Heavily lab-science based but still has some interesting and noteworthy ideas. Everyone should read this before they graduate if they're even considering a postgraduate degree in the sciences.

Serenity Characters :)

2008-07-21T16:14:00.001+01:00

Your results:
You are Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)

Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)		100%
Derrial Book (Shepherd)		85%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)		85%
Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)		65%
River (Stowaway)		60%
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)		55%
Wash (Ship Pilot)		50%
Inara Serra (Companion)		40%
Alliance		40%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary)		20%
A Reaver (Cannibal)		20%

You are good at fixing things.
You are usually cheerful.
You appreciate being treated
with delicacy and specialness.

Click here to take the "Which Serenity character am I?" quiz...

Joss Whedon strikes again.

2008-07-17T17:47:00.002+01:00

Please take 30 mins of your day to enjoy the delights of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. You will then find yourself inexorably impatient for the next act. For your convenience there is currently Act I and Act II provided.

Subtraction

2008-07-10T17:36:00.002+01:00

Subtraction

A cute little comic from one of may favourites.

Frustration

2008-07-10T16:28:00.002+01:00

It looks like most of the work I've been doing for the past while on weights over Frobenius rings has already been done/published by someone else in a series of 3 papers. He went about it a different way and the three papers overlap heavily, it's hard telling which order they were written in, so hopefully the alternate approach will still be worth something. Probably not. It's difficult even figuring out exactly what he has proved and where it leaves me.

A beautiful picture I wanted to share

2008-07-10T16:19:00.001+01:00

http://lensphotoblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/evening-drama.html

Amazing landscape!

Fire of Heaven

2008-07-10T15:18:00.002+01:00

The Fire of Heaven Trilogy by Russell Kirkpatrick consists of:

Across the Face of the World (2005)
In the Earth Abides the Flame (2005)
The Right Hand of God (2006)

Personally I found them very enjoyable, although the final book wasn't quite as engaging perhaps as the first two. A highly addictive series, prepare to be reading through the night. A truely epic tale and many elements were left to the reader to decide: characters' motivation for actions and the consequences of certain events being the primary of these. I felt the ending was a little rushed with many strings left untied. Perhaps this was intentional. All in all it's a great read and will be staying on my shelf to read again and lend to others.

Blast(s) from the Past

2008-06-06T14:02:00.002+01:00

Don't we all just love the 'look around you' series by the bbc. Here are two of my favourites:

the math episode
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiMWJ1xBo8w

and the calcium pilot episode
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8167307341589482391&q=look+around+you&ei=5zJJSPfkDpuKigLanNDMDA

and this might be helpful for finding some other episodes
http://lospiratosdominos.blogspot.com/search/label/Look_Around_You

semigroup algebras

2008-05-29T12:45:00.004+01:00

Think i might be one the verge of a breakthrough in proving a certain isomorphism i've been working on :) hooray! i just need to try get the formulation of the map right. Could be tricky though. I'll keep working at it nonetheless!

Hard times

2008-05-18T11:33:00.003+01:00

Had to say goodbye to Greg lastnight as he flew off to San Francisco this morning. It'll be the longest we've been in different countries for a while. Hope he has a great time. I'll miss him :(

Fire alarm antics

2008-05-17T08:55:00.003+01:00

Just finished my exams yesterday evening and was looking forward to my first sleep in since sometime in April. Unfortunately was woken up by the fire alarm in residences going off at the crack of dawn this morning! One of the pressure pipes/valves upstairs was pumping water out everywhere. I was freezing outside in my pjs and bare feet while they temporarily fixed the problem! Still possible that the water might leak down into our apartment, especially as we could hear it flowing down in the water cupboard. Here's hoping it doesn't ruin our rooms!

Eeeeeeeeep! Eeeeeeexam!

2008-05-14T17:57:00.003+01:00

So stressed about tomorrow's Calculus on manifolds exam that I've been feeling sick all day :( not to mention the panic attacks :( I can't honestly see myself passing in this state, especially if the exam hall is full. Makes me want to run away and never go back to ucd.

Pride! Sciencespeak!

2008-05-02T16:12:00.004+01:00

My friend Suzanne won the Intervarsity ScienceSpeak Competition on Wednesday and i'm so proud of her! Find out more about her and ultracold gases. Or read the article in the Irish Times about it.

Farewell Figrolls

2008-04-29T14:13:00.002+01:00

I just ate my last figroll. Apparently there is a shortage of figrolls in England, according to an article in the Guardian. While the shops on campus still have limited supplies of figrolls I wonder how long this will last. Perhaps Irish figroll makers have different suppliers. For the benefit of Cormac I've included a picture of a fig and figtree.

Ants

2008-04-21T13:22:00.002+01:00

I came home lastnight to find 20/30 ants crawling over my desk and under my bed. A killing spree ensued and today has been decreed extermination day. Pesky ants!

Ring Linear Coding

2008-04-16T12:56:00.003+01:00

I am giving a short talk on ring-linear coding today. I have put the pdf of my talk on my website for anyone who might be interested in learning about rings, codes and Mac Williams' Equivalence Theorem extended to codes over Frobenius rings. Wish me luck!

Sarcastic e-cards

2008-04-15T19:50:00.003+01:00

I want to send you all one from
www.someecards.com

Insomnia is not fun

2008-03-27T14:15:00.003Z

The daytime narcolepsy that accompanies it is probably worse though. Ring binder indentations on ones forehead are not helpful in earning the respect of ones students.

Easter

2008-03-22T23:59:00.003Z

Happy Easter! I'll be on duty at the Easter parade, hope it's not too cold. It'll be nice having treats again but it also means back to classes and such.

Happy American Pi Day

2008-03-14T19:55:00.000Z

For all those who believe in the notion of putting the month before the day I wish you a happy pi approximation day: 3/14 as you would have it in your notation. In my world I prefer to celebrate pi approximation day on 22/7 , in day/month notation. Or even not at all, what with pi being transcendental and all that....

Mnnn Monomial Transformations....

2008-03-14T19:33:00.001Z

Found a lovely paper from the 1940's detailing how monomials are made up of normal cycles and then some papers by Ralph B. Crouch(1) based on that work. Not directly related to my current work but could be underlying Ioana Constantinescu's Monomialsatz paper. Also cool and interesting :)

(1) Wonder if his middle name is Bartemius